I am a single mother by choice, blessed with my daughter Raphaela, conceived and born in Jerusalem in October 2009. Raising a happy and healthy child; balancing work, parenthood and relationships; with the additional challenge of doing it on my own, in Israel.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

A Day in the Life

Day three of the completely superfluous five-day Shavuot vacation from school.

3:30 am, Harry decides that we need to talk. I remind him that I do not have to take Raphaela to Gan today, and that I am planning on sleeping in.

5:30 am, Raphaela decides that we need to wake up. I remind her (and Harry, again) that I do not have to get out of the house on a regular schedule, and would really LOVE to sleep in.

6 am, I understand that I am not going to be sleeping in.

6-8:30 am, Feed Harry breakfast, feed the fish, take Harry outside and feed his friends. Play with Raphaela, eat breakfast, take a shower, get dressed, help Raphaela get dressed. Start one load of laundry, darks.

8:30-11 am, Hadassah Hospital (Ein Kerem) at the Mother and Baby wing, where Raphaela's eyes are examined by an expert pediatric ophthalmologist, who reports that Raphaela should start wearing glasses now, today, in order to get a decent resolution before she starts First Grade, almost two years from now. The Polish heritage in me starts to feel guilty for having passed on lousy genes.

11:15 am, Arrive home, start Raphaela's lunch, put washer into dryer, attempt to set up Raphaela's follow up appointment through the hospital, only to be told that their first available spot seems to be eight months from now. At least I have a half hour before my baby sitter arrives, and 45 minutes before my first patient arrives.

11:20 am, My first patient arrives super duper [G-d damnit!] early, along with her daughter-in-law and three children. I want to scream but I hold myself back; all children do not have school today, not just my daughter.

11:45 am, The baby sitter arrives, exactly on time. She asks me if she is expected to take care of the four children seated in the living room and playing together, in which case she is charging me extra.

12-3:30 pm, In which I work as a Chiropractor, fold laundry as a Mom, make phone calls and snarf in lunch in my five free minutes.

3:30-5 pm, Raphaela and I take the bus into the center of town, to order her eye glasses. She tries on about thirty pairs, looks fabulously chic in all of them, and we settle on the reddish frames that do not seem to fall off her "small nose." (According to the optometrist.) I then explain that genetically speaking, while Raphaela received my ears and my lips and my eyes, the shape of her face and her cute little button nose come from her father.

5-5:30 pm, We take our weekly pre-weekend trip to the library, to refresh the reading material in the house for Shabbat.

No comments:

Harry The Highlander

The "Other" Shopping List

Tall

Non Jewish (European) or Sephardi

Not Allergic to Cats

Creative/Gainfully Employed

Educated/Intelligent

Non-Smoker

Healthy/Low- None Hereditary Diseases

Left-handed

Carpe Diem

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.
(Howard Thurman)